Poultry products are consumed by most ethnic populations worldwide. In recent years, the global production of poultry meat and eggs has increased at an annual rate of approximately 5% with the United States, China, the former Soviet Union countries, Brazil, France, and Japan representing dominant production countries. In 1991, nearly 40 million metric tons (t) of poultry meat and 600 billion eggs were produced globally (Sims and Wolf 1994). In the United States, poultry production increased by 44% between 1982 and 1994, representing a recent annual production inventory of nearly 8 billion broilers, 300 million layers, and 300 million turkeys (Bagley et al. 1996; U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry 1997).